Ed Aarons – Worldwide Sports News

November 25, 2025

Arsenal in ‘different universe’ to Bayern Munich due to lack of European success

‘We are not there yet,’ Mikel Arteta said on club’s standing
Bayern visit Arsenal in Champions League on Wednesday

Mikel Arteta believes Arsenal remain in a “different universe” to European heavyweights such as Real Madrid and Bayern Munich given they have yet to win the Champions League.

The Premier League leaders head into their meeting with Bayern at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday having won all four matches so far in the league phase and are the only team yet to concede a goal.

November 5, 2025

Crystal Palace ask Premier League to move Leeds game as Carabao Cup row rumbles on

Palace want Leeds game played on 20 December
Club have been charged by the FA over Marinakis banner

Crystal Palace have asked the Premier League to move their fixture at Leeds on Sunday 21 December to the previous day to allow them more time to prepare for their rescheduled Carabao Cup quarter-final against Arsenal.

Mikel Arteta revealed on Monday that Arsenal had requested their game at Everton on that Sunday be moved to Saturday 20 December after the EFL pushed back the last-eight tie at the Emirates to two days before Christmas.

October 10, 2025

Pezzolano sacked by Watford after ‘resisting pressure to use players linked to agent’

Watford sources deny the claims after this week’s sacking
Claims relate to players with connection to agent Bayat

Paulo Pezzolano was sacked by Watford because he resisted pressure to select players who have a connection to the agent Arnaud Mogi Bayat, it has been claimed, although this has been denied by sources at the Championship club.

Pezzolano and his technical team were dismissed on Wednesday after five months and 10 matches, with Javi Gracia installed for his second spell. It is understood Pezzolano and his staff were surprised and dismayed, having secured successive league victories at Vicarage Road after a slow start to the season.

October 8, 2025October 8, 2025

Watford sack Pezzolano after 10 games and bring back Gracia as manager

Uruguayan was appointed in May and has Watford 11th
Gracia had spell as club’s manager that ended in 2019

Watford have sacked their manager Paulo Pezzolano after only five months and 10 games in charge, with their former manager Javi Gracia confirmed as his replacement.

It is understood that Pezzolano, who was appointed to replace Tom Cleverley in May, and his technical staff were told not to take training on Wednesday after speculation that he was to depart began to mount on Tuesday. The Uruguayan was summoned to a meeting at which he became the 11th manager Watford have sacked since the start of 2020.

October 5, 2025

Brooke Norton-Cuffy: ‘Vieira was great as a player and he’s a great manager now’

Genoa’s England Under-21s full-back on his coach in Serie A and the card game that helped make Lee Carsley’s side European champions

If there was a secret to the togetherness among the England Under-21s players as they retained their European title this summer then Brooke Norton-Cuffy may have let it slip: a card game called Werewolf. Introduced to the senior England camp during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, it pits a small informed group called the wolves against the uninformed majority known as the villagers as they attempt to deceive each other to win, in a format similar to the popular TV show The Traitors.

“We were playing every night,” says Norton-Cuffy. “It really helped us bond because you get to know people. In this day and age when everyone can be on their phones, you sit down, you have a laugh, you have a joke … the group was really, really tight, everyone was together, and you saw that on the pitch when we ended up going and winning it.”

August 23, 2025

Tense meeting awaits after Crystal Palace’s bitter European battle with Forest

Police are on alert for Sunday’s Premier League match after Nottingham Forest had a hand in the Eagles’ demotion

Crystal Palace against Nottingham Forest isn’t usually a Premier League fixture that would have the Metropolitan police on red alert. But after a summer spent at each other’s throats at the court of arbitration for sport as well as on social media over Uefa’s decision to demote Palace from the Europa League to the Conference League, to Forest’s advantage, supporters of both clubs are preparing to come face-to-face on Sunday afternoon.

“Forest aren’t our rivals – they’re nothing to us,” says the Palace fan Chris Waters. “But all of a sudden this game has a bitter edge to it.” Sanad Attia, AKA Wolfie, who presents the Forest Fan TV YouTube channel, says: “We’ve never really had any kind of issue with Palace – I was quite happy for them winning the FA Cup. But they have been wanting to blame everyone but themselves. And in particular, Forest and Evangelos Maranakis.”

August 14, 2025

Premier League 2025-26 preview No 18: Tottenham Hotspur

Frank deserves a chance to prove himself but the new manager will need a strong start after last season’s calamitous league campaign

Guardian writers’ predicted position: 6th (NB: this is not necessarily Ed Aarons’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)

Last season’s position: 17th

August 12, 2025

Crystal Palace hit out at Europa League ban: ‘Merit is rendered meaningless’

Club refer to ‘poorly conceived regulations’
Claim some clubs have ‘unique privilege and power’

Crystal Palace have called on Uefa to scrap its rules on multi-club ownership (MCO) and questioned whether they received a fair hearing at the court of arbitration of sport after their appeal against demotion from the Europa League was rejected.

Cas confirmed on Monday it had upheld Uefa’s decision to demote the FA Cup winners to the Conference League after it decided John Textor held shares and had a decisive influence in Palace and Lyon, who also qualified for the Europa League. Textor has since sold his 44.9% stake in the club to another US businessman, Woody Johnson.

August 11, 2025

Crystal Palace to stay in Conference League after losing appeal at Cas

Palace were demoted from Europa League by Uefa
Club hoped to overturn decision related to ownership

Crystal Palace have lost their appeal against demotion from the Europa League and will take their place in the Conference League. The court of arbitration for sport confirmed on Monday that the FA Cup winners were unsuccessful in overturning the decision made by European football’s governing body to punish them for contravening its rules over multi-club ownership.

Uefa demoted Palace to the Conference League after they were deemed to have breached regulations because John Textor held shares in Palace and Lyon, who also qualified for the Europa League. He has since sold his 43% stake to his fellow US businessman Woody Johnson.

August 7, 2025

Premier League 2025-26 preview No 8: Crystal Palace

Uncertainty over which European competition they will play in and a lack of summer recruitment has made for a less-than-ideal backdrop to the new season

Guardian writers’ predicted position: 14th (NB: this is not necessarily Ed Aarons’ prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)

Last season’s position: 12th

August 5, 2025

Glasner believes Crystal Palace will win appeal and play in Europa League

Case against Uefa demotion to be heard by Cas on Friday
Club’s first Conference League fixture set for 21 August

Oliver Glasner has said he is confident Crystal Palace will win their appeal at the court of arbitration for sport this week and be reinstated to play in the Europa League.

Palace are seeking to overturn Uefa’s decision to demote them to the Conference League for breaking multiclub ownership rules, with the appeal to take place in Lausanne on Friday. The decision is expected to be revealed by Cas on Monday, the day after Glasner’s FA Cup holders face the Premier League champions Liverpool in the Community Shield at Wembley.

August 5, 2025

Ademola Lookman goes on strike at Atalanta over ‘broken promises’ for transfer

Club refusing to sell to Serie A rivals Inter
Centre-forward complains of ‘poor treatment’

Ademola Lookman has gone on strike as he attempts to force through a move to Inter, but Atalanta have insisted he will not be sold to another Italian club.

The Nigeria forward did not attend pre-season training for the second day in a row after handing in a transfer request last weekend, when Lookman also published a statement in which he accused Atalanta of “broken promises”. An improved Inter bid worth up to €45m (£32.1m) including add-ons was rejected last week after a €40m offer for the 27-year-old was turned down.

July 20, 2025

QPR’s Julien Stéphan: ‘The Championship is probably the most difficult league in the world’

New manager on the need for his team to find an identity, the challenge of the second tier and on managing Dembélé, Doué and Doku at Rennes

Julien Stéphan had been enjoying his break from football for about two months when his wife’s patience finally gave in. “She said to me: ‘I hope you will manage again quickly – and very quickly – because I want to see you on the pitch and to see you back in your own environment,’” says the new Queens Park Rangers manager.

Stéphan left Rennes for the second time last November and estimates that as well as spending precious time with his two children he watched 20 to 25 games a week as he waited for his next opportunity. That finally arrived last month when the Frenchman took over at Loftus Road from Martí Cifuentes, who has since joined Leicester. But the chance to take a breather after six years as a manager during which he guided Rennes to the Champions League for the first time and led Strasbourg to sixth in Ligue 1 – their highest position since 1980 – was most welcome.

July 16, 2025July 16, 2025

Parish blames Nottingham Forest for Crystal Palace’s Europa League demotion

Palace chair ‘very hopeful’ of winning appeal to Cas
Club’s fans vow to take protest to Uefa HQ in Nyon

Steve Parish has suggested that Nottingham Forest are to blame for Crystal Palace’s demotion from the Europa League to the Conference League, and confirmed the FA Cup winners will appeal to the court of arbitration for sport over Uefa’s decision.

European football’s governing body ruled last week that Palace had breached its multiclub ownership rules, with Forest expected to be promoted to the Europa League in their place. It was revealed last month that Forest had written to Uefa to raise concerns that Palace could be in breach of regulations that bar clubs with the same owner from competing in the same competition if an individual or ownership group is considered to have a decisive influence over more than one of those teams.

July 15, 2025

‘It’s not fair’: Crystal Palace fans march in protest at demotion from Europa League

‘We earned the right to be there and will show support’
Palace in Conference League after ownership breach

Furious Crystal Palace supporters have demanded that Uefa reverse its decision to demote the FA Cup winners from the Europa League to the Conference League next season as they staged a protest march outside Selhurst Park on Tuesday evening.

It was confirmed last week that Uefa’s club financial control body had concluded Palace breached its multi-club ownership criteria, with the south London club expected to appeal to the court of arbitration for sport (Cas) against a decision that their chair, Steve Parish, described as “probably one of the greatest injustices that has ever happened in European football”.